2 Parties Have Eyes On Illinois

March 07, 1988|By Thomas Hardy, Political writer.

In the course of conversation, Michael Whouley`s eyes flicked back and forth between an interviewer and several wall maps of Illinois.

This was not a nervous tic, simply the audiovisual connections that statewide presidential campaign directors characteristically make when explaining how they are organized to run their candidate in the first primary in a northern industrial state March 15.

Like Boy Scouts, the motto for Whouley and his Democratic and Republican counterparts for the Illinois primary is: Be prepared.

Delegate slates are in place in most or all 22 congressional districts, direct-mail efforts are being made in key districts, and better organized camps have campaign coordinators in each of the state`s 102 counties. Those who can afford it have phone banks humming nightly to identify voters, and television markets for campaigning and advertising have been identified.

The candidates, their entourages and the national press corps will begin trooping north from the South into Illinois Tuesday night even as votes are being counted in 20 states that will account for nearly one-third of the national convention delegates selected in each party.

Whouley, state campaign director for Democratic Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachussetts, and his rivals will have one week in which to make the most of the successes, or to reverse the failures, from Super Tuesday. Republicans will do the same, but in a much smaller field.

The Illinois primary is important to contenders in both parties. The state has a rich cache of convention delegates: 187 for Democrats and 92 for Republicans. It is the first and only nominating contest that immediately follows Super Tuesday. A candidate`s performance will be seen as an indicator of electability in the state, population 11.4 million, which experts see as a microcosm of the nation.

Republicans and Democrats will vote with two ballots in the Illinois primary: one is a nonbinding presidential preference, or ``beauty contest``

ballot, and the other is a direct election of pledged or uncommitted convention delegates by congressional district.

``Illinois is the best bellwether state in America,`` said pollster Peter Hart. ``It is a state that has it all: north, south, urban, rural, black, white, Hispanic. What usually plays well nationally plays pretty well in Illinois.``

Hart called the Ides of March primary in Illinois, ``a collossus of Rhodes astride the second phase of the nominating process.``

``Illinois has always been perfectly placed on the calendar,`` said the Washington-based Democratic pollster, who is not working for a candidate in this election. ``It comes as the showdown state after the winnowing process and sets up the next phase-northern industrial states-of primaries to come.`` DEMOCRATS

Whouley echoed Hart`s thoughts as he contemplated the wall maps in his Loop office, one bristling with stick-pins to locate the hometowns of Dukakis delegate candidates, and the other identifying broadcast-media markets for the congressional districts.

``It`s a Dukakis campaign philosophy to be competitive in every state,``

Whouley said, indirectly referring to a decision by Illinois` own Sen. Paul Simon not to actively campaign in Super Tuesday states. ``But our expectations here are affected by the realities of having two home-state candidates.``

The Democratic race in Illinois is characterized by the presence of Simon, a veteran lawmaker from Downstate Makanda, and Chicago`s Rev. Jesse Jackson, the rights leader who this year has improved on his presidential campaign performance of 1984 and is expected to return home this week with a significant number of delegates from Super Tuesday.

Simon reversed plans to drop out of the presidential race if he did not win a breakthrough victory in one of the early nominating contests. Simon said he agreed not to withdraw after getting pressure from state Democratic regulars who depend on his candidacy to elect the party faithful as convention delegates and from loyalists who have supported and contributed to his campaign.

Simon believes there is a good chance of reinvigorating his campaign and entering the second phase with a dual victory in the Illinois ``beauty contest`` and delegates sweepstakes. He is given little chance of doing that, however, and Jackson is not expected to become the nation`s first black presidential nominee regardless of how well he does.

This leaves Illinois as an important battleground for Dukakis and Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri.

Mark Longbaugh, Gephardt`s Illinois campaign director, and his counterparts in the other Democratic campaigns have conceded virtually all the black vote, most of it in three Chicago congressional districts, to Jackson.

In vying for the remainder of the Democratic vote, Longbaugh said: ``The big question mark in Illinois is Paul Simon. Democratic voters here have warm feelings towards Paul Simon and have been supportive.